ADB is going ahead with a border project without any firm evidence that key populations or migrant workers are at greater risk in these areas than they are in other areas. As a latecomer to funding HIV prevention in the country, they should have done better in targeting their prevention money to activities that are most needed in the places where they are most needed.
There is even a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f295bpvPTns.
Myo Thant, Principal Economist at ADB's Office of Regional Economic Integration, says: "The epidemic has definitely had an adverse impact on the Myanmar economy and will continue to do so at a macro, regional, and household level." It is true that outdated data and inflated estimates and projections led one study to conclude that there would be only a small macroeconomic impact almost ten years ago.
The [him] moderator challenges Mr Thant to provide [him] with any clear evidence that HIV has had an impact on a macroeconomic level in Myanmar or will do so in the future.
[him] moderator
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Focus on HIV/AIDS in Myanmar
ADB
3 December 2012
Myo Thant, Principal Economist at ADB's Office of Regional Economic Integration, explains the impact of the HIV epidemic on Myanmar's economy and how assistance from development organizations can make a difference in people's lives.
How would you describe the HIV/AIDS situation in Myanmar?
South and Southeast Asia has over 4 million people living with HIV and about 300,000 people died last year while another 300,000 were newly infected. This sounds awful, which it is, but it pales in comparison with sub-Saharan Africa where there were over 23 million infected and over a million deaths in the same period. The point I am trying to make is that the epidemic is still a very nasty development issue even in its fourth decade and even though Asian policy makers have been able to avoid an African-scale pandemic.
Myo Thant is principal economist at ADB’s Office of Regional Economic Integration
Myanmar is ranked as a high-burden country in Asia with an estimated 216,000 people living with HIV, of whom roughly a third are women. The epidemic is concentrated in a few key affected populations. The good news is that HIV prevalence in the adult population peaked at .94% in 2000 and has declined to .53% as of 2011. Having said that, it is important to note that prevalence among key affected groups remains high: 21.9% for male intravenous drug users, 9.4% for commercial sex workers, and 7.8% for MSM (men who have sex with men).
Furthermore, the treatment gap in Myanmar remains large as only one-third of the estimated 120,000 people in need of treatment have access to antiretroviral therapy. This is a huge improvement in over just 3 years but it is still very low compared with Africa where approximately 50% of those in need have access to treatment.
Watch the announcement of a new $1 million project to assist Myanmar strengthen its monitoring of HIV transmission, especially in cross-border areas.
How does this problem affect Myanmar's prospects for growth and development?
Let there be no mistake: AIDS is the enemy of the Asian promise. The epidemic has definitely had an adverse impact on the Myanmar economy and will continue to do so at a macro, regional, and household level. The methodology that we developed at ADB almost 20 years ago allows us to understand the economic impacts of the epidemic. Generally speaking, and this is true for other countries as well, there will be four layers of impacts:
The direct costs of prevention and treatment are high although some of the costs can be borne by external assistance.
Indirect costs due to loss in productivity, higher wages, and loss of skills and institutional knowledge can be very high. 20,000 people are estimated to have died in Myanmar from AIDS-related diseases last year alone and a further 50,000 are likely to die before 2016.
The distribution of these impacts is quite uneven. There are some population groups, geographical areas, and age groups that are more affected than others. It is the poor who suffer the most since they have the least access to services and information and the least ability to protect themselves or obtain treatment.
In the long term, savings and investment levels will be affected, and there are also intergenerational impacts at the household level. If it is tough for a child to be brought up by a single parent in a poor household, it is tougher when both parents are lost to the disease and he/she is brought up by grandparents who themselves are not materially well off. There are thousands of these cases all over Southeast Asia, including Myanmar.
What challenges does the country face in dealing with HIV/AIDS?
Myanmar faces many development challenges. The health sector will have to vie with other sectors for scarce resources. Within the health sector, there are many other pressing issues that require urgent attention, some of which have regional impacts as well, such as drug-resistant malaria, fake drugs, and dengue fever.
Myanmar has to devote more resources to preventive measures to fight the HIV epidemic. Government interventions in the past decade are paying off. Still, 8,000 people are estimated to have been infected in 2011. In the absence of a vaccine or a cure and given the high costs of treatment therapies, increased expenditure on prevention is warranted. At the same time, treatment for HIV also has to be scaled up from the current low level. Frankly speaking, given the high costs of these drugs, the country will not be able to do this without massive and sustained external help.
We should also remember the non-government sector and the critical role that it can play. Myanmar has made a very good start in using civil society and private sector groups to fight the epidemic. However, there are a number of difficult issues that the country as a whole needs to grapple with, such as how to help intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men, and commercial sex workers.
How can ADB help Myanmar in the fight against the spread of the disease?
I am hopeful that we can assist the country in two areas. First, provide assistance on health sector reform, which is the only way that the country will be able to mobilize the needed financial and human resources in a sustainable manner. Second, there is a great need for innovative approaches on dealing with the epidemic in border regions. The Greater Mekong Subregion is an obvious conduit for channeling such assistance, but there is plenty of work to be done on the border with Northeast India as well.
http://www.adb.org/features/focus-hiv-aids-myanmar?ref=/features
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ADB Marks World AIDS Day with New Project in Myanmar
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is marking World AIDS Day with the launch of a new HIV project in Myanmar, where transmission risks and infection rates are a growing concern.
“Growing cross-border movement of people and goods has increased health risks, including HIV and malaria in Myanmar,” said Stephen Groff, ADB’s Vice-President (Operations 2). “This project will support cost effective and high impact measures to prevent the spread of HIV.”
The Myanmar project will support the scaling up of the local response to improve access to HIV prevention services for key affected populations including migrant workers, and will strengthen monitoring systems for tracking HIV risks across borders.
The project will focus on the two major economic corridors linking Myanmar to Thailand and the People’s Republic of China.
The Myanmar project will be supported by a $1 million technical assistance grant from the Cooperation Fund for Fighting HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific?financed by the Government of Sweden and administered by ADB.
HIV/AIDS remains a serious health threat across much of Asia and the Pacific. In 2011, five million people were living with HIV/AIDS in the region.
http://www.adb.org/news/adb-marks-world-aids-day-new-project-myanmar
